Canada’s financial capital is sprucing up in anticipation of the 2015 Pan American Games. Union station downtown is upgrading, more bike lanes are being added and new streetcars and trains are rolling out. And while the…

From a train station in Vienna, whose design pays homage to the city’s rich musical history, to a futuristic university building in Düsseldorf, Monocle takes a look at the cutting-edge architectural projects that will…

Gritty and confident, Tel Aviv is building on its reputation as a European city perched on the corner of the Middle East. With an explosion of technology start-ups, Tel Aviv is quietly becoming an unlikely incubator of…

On 14 November the first Eurostar train should pull out from the new €1.15bn St Pancras International station headed for Paris. The station has come a long way since the 19th century when it was opened to receive ale del…

Former Young & Rubicam advertising executive Tracy Lanza has just joined the management team at New York’s Grand Central Station.

Former Young & Rubicam advertising executive Tracy Lanza has just joined the management team at New York’s Grand Central Station. Her job: to rebrand the historic railway terminal. Having left her glamorous Park Avenue…

Both rail and air operators are upping the ante in the coming months in a bid to lure passengers onto the lucrative route between Moscow and St Petersburg.

Both rail and air operators are upping the ante in the coming months in a bid to lure passengers onto the lucrative route between Moscow and St Petersburg. Business travellers have long faced a dilemma over whether to take…

Melbourne’s Flinders Street station is about to get a major overhaul but London’s King’s Cross has had some more subtle aesthetic tweaks. Monocle’s design editor says he prefers to get on board with the latter approach.

Last week, the winning design of the competition to develop Melbourne’s iconic railway station at Flinders Street was announced, with the contract awarded to Herzog & de Meuron and Australian practice Hassell.

A new Shinkansen train is set to make Japan a far more connected country with high-speed access serving some of its lesser-known cities. It has come at a cost – but what price the romance of train travel?

Last week Japan’s national dailies and TV news anchors worked themselves into a frenzy over a train. To be fair it was a new Shinkansen. This handsome rolling stock, with its blue-and-bronze stripes, will make the 450km…

Cute cultural projects are all well and good but what the US’s rail system really needs is some new trains, says Tristan McAllister.

A few months ago, in another Monocolumn, we told you about a writers-in-residence programme that US rail company Amtrak was trying out. The goal was to inspire people to think of using rail instead of planes or cars.

Donations, please. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week called on President Barack Obama to provide funding for the state’s high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco.

Donations, please. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger this week called on President Barack Obama to provide funding for the state’s high-speed rail link between Los Angeles and San Francisco. It’s a reminder that…

Britain clings to the idea of romantic train travel, even as the tracks crumble into the sea. David Plaisant is feeling decidedly unsentimental after an epic journey to the West Country.

As I waited for a delayed train that would take me to a station where I would then take a rail-replacement coach to another station that was still far from my end destination, I had plenty of opportunity to ponder on the…

Until Russia’s high-speed train, the Sapsan, arrived, the only practical way for business travellers to skip between Moscow and St Petersburg was by plane. In our monthly benchmark test, Monocle hops on board to try out the…

Japan's new high-speed line isn't that much quicker than its existing high-speed lines. However, what it lacks in thrilling advance it makes up for with secure progress.

I was heading south along Japan's Pacific coast by Shinkansen, rice paddies and snow-blanketed cities passing by in a blur, when the train attendant announced our speed over the intercom: 300km/h. "Are you enjoying the ride…